I co-founded Mad Fiber in 2009 and left in August 2013 as the business began choking on a series of decisions in which I was not involved. I’m told what is left will go to bankruptcy shortly.

I am immensely proud of the engineering and manufacturing team at Mad Fiber. A group of this caliber is rare in any industry. I am also grateful to vendors, partners, and thousands of customers; incredibly generous early adopters, sharing the vision, making a dream possible.

Co-founder (and engineer extraordinaire) Max,
with wheel #1 (2009).

I am proud the first model performed under gifted riders like Freddie Rodriguez, Ivan Dominguez, David Richter, Todd Heriot, Rich Roll, and Joanna Lawn. It was ridden to World, US National, and multiple State Road Championships; Ironman, Ultraman, and RAAM titles and placings; and set some absolute strength-to-weight records. I am only sorry no one will see what we were capable of. We barely got the launch product sorted, and planned much more to come.

6,000 wheels later.

While this affair may become clearer in the future, I must confess my inability to understand why it had to happen. Mostly I hope the episode does not deter other innovators beginning or considering creating positive technical change. Cycling needs you. May you have lucky breaks and tailwinds.

We do bicycle work for many reasons. To enable the thrill and renewal of carefree riding, to honor the materials available, to share our skills, sometimes we can’t quite help ourselves.

A beautiful example of all those is a wood bike built by Chris Connor of Connor Wood Bicycles for a fundraiser organized by Robert Brudnell of Natural Way to celebrate the life of a friend. Please visit the site to learn the whole story and contact Robert if you’re inspired to participate.

For today, let’s bask in some lovely images of the process and bike. A big part of the magic of making things (from meals to bikes to films) is seeing a mental visualization become physical and shareable. What a rush. Second is watching materials move from a pure state in which they only represent possibilities to another where they are performing precise tasks. This transformation, despite our growing understanding of the principles, remains a fundamentally captivating magic.

The bike is designed to race the very demanding Leadville 100, a high speed, challenging variety of terrain. White ash was obtained from two donated trees. One victim of traffic, one of development. Black walnut died of a new-to-Colorado disease in residential Denver. Read more →